1. Technical Field
The following description relates to an image forming device capable of reading print data from an external storage which is detachably connectable to the image forming device and printing the print data.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known an image forming device capable of performing direct printing. The direct printing is a function of retrieving print data stored in the external storage detachably attached to the image forming device, developing the print data into image data (e.g., bitmap data), and printing images on recording sheets based on the developed image data. Typically, when the print data is stored in the external storage, a print data file is output at each print job.
When the print data is printed, generally, an image corresponding to single page is printed on one page of a recording sheet. Recently, there is a case where a plurality of images respectively representing a plurality of pages of a document are collectively printed on one page of a recording sheet. For example, on one page of a recording sheet, images representing two pages of a document may be collectively printed (i.e., 2-in-1 printing). There is also a case where images representing four pages of a document are collectively printed on one page of a recording sheet (i.e., 4-in-1 printing). There is known a case where images corresponding to two pages of a document are printed on both sides of a recording sheet, respectively (i.e., both-side printing). Further, there is also known a case where the both-side printing is performed to a plurality of recording sheets so that the plurality of recording sheets are bound and the plurality of pages are arranged in an appropriate order (i.e., booklet printing).
Incidentally, it is conventionally known that a plurality of pieces of print data output at a plurality of print jobs, respectively, may be temporarily combined so that the plurality of pieces of print data are regarded as a single piece of print data corresponding to a single print job (i.e., the combined print job), and the collective printing is performed based on such print data corresponding to the combined single print job. An example of such an image forming device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2005-11263 (hereinafter, referred to as '263 publication).